Monday, April 14, 2003

ALL THESE ILLUSIONS JUST TAKE US TOO LONG: Tomorrow may be tax day, but tomorrow is also a day of great happiness as well.

The Thicke album will finally be released.

Who? What?

Thicke, a/k/a Robin Thicke (son of Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring), may well be the future of whiteboy neo-soul -- well, that is, if it isn't Timberlake first.

Thanks to the blessing that is digital cable, Jen and I got hooked on his video for "When I Get You Alone" (listen here, or watch it here) last summer and eagerly awaited the album. Yes, we thought it was damn cool that someone had finally put words to A Fifth of Beethoven. Fo' shizzle, the song rocks. MTV-Deuce and MTV-Jams were playing it every hour, and for sure, the album was soon to follow.

But when was the album coming out? "Soon", they said, in a June 2002 USA Today chat. That date got pushed back from September to November, then from November to January, and then, in March, an April 15 drop date was released

Yes, this album's been delayed more times than View From The Top or the still-yet-to-be-released-even-after-its-September-2001-festival-premiere Prozac Nation, but I'm still optimistic, even if the title has changed from Cherry Blue Skies to Beautiful World.

Look. The album received a four-star review in February from the Philadelphia Inquirer ("To listen to the debut album by singer-songwriter/producer Robin Thicke is to flash back to Prince's psychedelic soul of the mid-'80s, cross the melodic bridge Stevie Wonder built between "black" and "white" music, and let yourself loose in the rich grooves of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall").

And he's Alan Thicke's son! When has that family ever let us down before? (Other than "Thicke of the Night", I mean.) The man's got the "Diff'rent Strokes" theme music in his gene pool. He had a Sprite ad half a year before his album came out.

The album drops tomorrow. We hope.

(So too does Kelly Clarkson's, fyi.)

No comments:

Post a Comment